Joe Biden Is Wrong. Businesses Will—and Want to—Pay for Medicare for All
Quote:
Earlier this week, former vice president and current presidential hopeful Joe Biden made one of the more unusual arguments against Medicare for All.
“Right now you have this … overwhelming number of employers who are paying into the health care plan. Why let them off the hook? All the sudden they don’t have to pay anything?”
I’m one of those employers, and I’m supportive of Medicare for All, but it’s not about being let off the hook. As the founder and CEO of a business that has always provided health care for our employees, MCS Industries, I’d rather pay a predictable, manageable payroll tax to finance health care than pay impossibly high and unpredictable premiums.
Last year, MCS, a company with 200 employees, paid over $2 million in insurance premiums. That cost is astronomical, and only expected to grow. In 2018, the average premium cost in America was $6,896 for single coverage and $19,616 for family coverage. Over 10 years, those costs have increased by 55% nationally. No business owner knows what their cost is going to be one year to the next, which makes it almost impossible to plan for long-term growth.
With rising costs, businesses have to get creative about how we manage our overhead. There’s a lot to consider: What are our employees health care needs? Are there enough in-network providers in the area? Do we offer family plans, vision, or dental? Most of us aren’t insurance or health care experts, and don’t have the expertise to easily navigate the complicated system.
Sometimes, to get costs under control, business owners need to switch plans or providers to lower premiums, which might mean higher deductibles or out-of-pocket costs for employees. That’s borne out in evidence: Employee deductibles have risen 212% over the last decade, raising out-of-pocket costs enough to negate wage increases.
Even if those corners do get cut, rising premiums always mean there’s less money for the things businesses actually want to do: raise wages; enter new markets, create new product lines, and hire new employees.
Medicare for All is about freeing up businesses and the middle class while reducing our national health care bill.
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The author of this opinion piece in Fortune goes on to eloquently and concisely support Medicare for All and why business interests should as well. It's pitched for a targeted audience; I would have added in that it also means
28.5 million people- about 8.8% of people in this country who are currently uninsured, with an
additional 87 million adults ages 19 to 64 inadequately insured- all those people would also have health care coverage, and that's a big win too!